Keith Wood wants to see Ireland add a few strings to their bow for the upcoming Six Nations approach.

After a Rugby World Cup in which the approach fell flat in the quarter-final defeat to Argentina, the upcoming championship provides a showcase of a possible evolution in style under Joe Schmidt.

Keith and The Irish Times' Gerry Thornley joined Off The Ball tonight to give their take on a week of major talking points off the rugby field and Keith spoke of what he would like to see stylistically.

"I hope Ireland have learned some of the lessons from the World Cup. I hope Joe Schmidt has learned some of the lessons from the World Cup," he said.

"We played a style that, yes, has been and is efficient in Six Nations and we are playing in the Six Nations. But I think other teams will try a little bit more and we will need to have more. The game-plan that we had which was successful last year, the only time we all really got excited with it was when they started going wide at the very end. It does depend on the weather conditions, but we need more in the locker than just the kick and chase and the constant press."

"I don't think Keith Earls ever wanted to go. I think it was almost out of pure frustration that he started having a proper conversation with Saracens to actually go away," he said, before talking about the tipping point we are at.

"This is a serious moment for Irish rugby and I know we're under a lot of pressure with an awful lot of different things going on. But this moment is key. We've a chunk of Irish players that we need to keep on our shores to deliver for Munster, Leinster, Connacht and Ulster and those negotiations are happening at this period of time and you don't want to be doing it in the middle of the Six Nations because that's just awful," said Keith.